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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



WHEN THOU HAST SHUT 
THY DOOR 



WHEN THOU HAST SHUT 
THY DOOR 



OR 



THE QUIET HOUR 



BY 



REV. G. H. C. MACGREGOR, M.A, 

AUTHOR OF 

*• Aspirations of the Christian," "Praying- 
in the Holy Ghost," etc. 




NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO< 

PUBLISHERS 



17711 



Library of Congress 

Two Copies Received 
JUL 11 1900 

Copyright tntry 
SECOND COPY. 

D€'wer«i to 

OROtfi DIVISION, 

JUL 9.\ 1900 



66192 

Copyright, 1900 
By Thomas Y. Crowell & Company 






CONTENTS. 



I. The Meaning ...... 7 

II. The Purpose . 9 

1. Stillness 10 

2. Outlook 11 

3. God-Consciousness .... 12 
III. The Use ........ 13 

Detachment 14 

Recollection 15 

Adoration 16 

Confession ....... 17 

Faith 18 

Bible-Study 18 

Meditation . 20 

Prayer . . . . . . . . 20 

Intercession ....... 22 

Consecration 23 



" O Lord, in the morning Thou shalt hear my voice; in 
the morning will I order my prayer to Thee, and will keep 
watch." — Psalnfb v., 3. 



WHENTHOU HAST SHUTTHY DOOR, 
OR THE QUIET HOUR. 



I. 

THE MEANING, 

The subject of the Quiet Hour is one of the 
utmost importance in its bearing on the reality of 
our spiritual life, and on the efficiency of our 
spiritual work. In dealing with this subject the 
first question we have to ask is: 

What is meant by the 
Quiet Hour ? 

The Quiet Hour is the time which all Christians 
give, or rather, I should say, ought to give, regu- 
larly each day to private personal devotion, to pri- 
vate personal communion with God. When we 
say the Quiet Hour, we do not necessarily mean 
sixty minutes. Some who have ample leisure 



8 THE QUIET HOUR. 

might profitably give more, but the great mass of 
us cannot possibly give so much. There are thou- 
sands of Christians who are thankful if they can 
rescue from the rush of toil or business thirty or 
even fifteen minutes regularly for this purpose. 
After all, it is not the actual time spent that is 
important ; it is the manner in which it is spent. 

And when we saj^^ the Quiet Hour we do not 
necessarily mean the morning hour. There is 
a distinction between the Quiet Hour and the 
Morning Watch. But while the Quiet Hour does 
not necessarily mean the morning hour, I would 
earnestly plead that in the case of as many as pos- 
sible it should actually mean the morning hour. If 
God is to be first in our lives, it is important that 
He should be first in our days. We should strive, 
as Murray McCheyne used to put it, "to see the 
face of God before we see the face of man." 

Further, when we say the Quiet Hour we mean 
that the time for personal devotion should be regu- 
larly set apart and jealously guarded against all 
encroachment. It should be looked upon as an 



THE QUIET HOUR. 9 

engagement taking precedence of all other engage- 
ments. No earthly business should be allowed to 
interrupt this heavenly business. No appointment 
with man should be allowed to cancel this appoint- 
ment with God. 

II. 

THE PURPOSE. 

We have already learned what is meant by the 
Quiet Hour. We now have to ask the question : 
What is the purpose 
of the Quiet Hour ? 

The specific purpose of the Quiet Hour is the 
development of the "Contemplative side of our re- 
ligious nature, and the cultivation of the devout 
life. The observance of the Quiet Hour is attended 
by many most happy results. Nothing fits us for 
work, nothing prepares us for suffering, like fellow- 
ship with God. But to fit us for work, or to pre- 
pare us for suffering, is not the purpose of the 
Quiet Hour. Its purpose is to lead us into the 
presence of God, and to make God real to us. 



10 THE QUIET HOUR. 

We shall not be far wrong if we say that the 
purpose of the Quiet Hour is to produce in our 
lives these three qualities : — 

1. STILLNESS. 

Stillness is always the mark of a deep life. The 
brook far up in the hill babbles as it leaps towards 
the plains, but when it has become a mighty river 
it flows on in absolute silence, even though on its 
bosom it may be bearing the navies of the world. 
Stillness is a quality not incompatible with business. 
The busiest life ever lived on earth, the life of our 
blessed Lord, was also the one in which there was 
the most perfect stillness. Stillness is not incom- 
patible with business, but it is incompatible with 
f ussiness ; and f ussiness is a besetting sin of our 
age, and one of the worst perils of our spiritual 
life. Now nothing conquers fussiness like the 
approach into the presence of God. As we wait 
on Him we hear Him rebuke our feverish haste 
and our perpetual craving for action. We hear 
Him say, ^' Be still, and know that I am God.^^ 



THE QUIET HOUR. 11 

2. OUTLOOK. 

The second quality in our religious life produced 
by the right observance of the Quiet Hour is what 
I shall call Outlook. If we are to live the large, 
free Christian lives God would have us live, we 
must carry about with us continually a sense of 
the future. We must never forget that we are 
eternal. But this sense of the future, this sense of 
the infiniteness of our destiny, comes only through 
waiting on God. It is through the fellowship of 
the Quiet Hour that faith is strengthened until it 
makes the glory that awaits us a more real thing 
than the present. The Quiet Hour trains us to 
look, not at the things which are seen, but at the 
things which are unseen. It is this faculty of liv- 
ing in the future to which I have given the name 
of Outlook. The grace of Outlook, where it exists, 
has always an immense effect on a man's life. It 
makes him patient. He can afford to wait, for he 
has eternity to draw on ; he can afford to bear, for 
the sufferings of the present world are not worthy 
to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed. 



12 THE QUIET HOUR. 

And it makes him heavenly minded. He learns to 
measure his life, not by years, but by millenniums ; 
and as he has years here and millenniums there, 
what wonder is it if he sets his affections on things 
above — not on things on the earth ? 

3. GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS. 

The third quality whose development in the re- 
ligious life is mightily helped by the observance of 
the Quiet Hour is God-consciousness. This is the 
very heart and centre of the spiritual life. We are 
spiritual men just in the measure in which the 
thought of God dominates and controls our life. 
But if the consciousness of God is to be driven 
deep into our life, until we become as God-con- 
scious as we are self-conscious, we simply must 
day by day wait on God. Working for God is a 
blessed means of grace. But as we know, the work 
must shut God out. There is an element of self 
ever present in our work ; and the more energetic- 
ally we work, the more strongly the consciousness 
of self may be developed. It is fellowship, and not 



THE QUIET HOUR. 13 

service, which sets us free from self. It was when 
Enoch walked with God that ^^ he was not.'^ But 
fellowship, and not service, is the characteristic of 
the Quiet Hour. 

This, then, I believe to be the great purpose of 
the Quiet Hour — to beget in our lives that still- 
ness which will enable us to hear God's lightest 
whisper, and thus to know Him Whom to know is 
eternal life; that outlook which will redeem our 
lives from all meanness and pettiness, and give us 
a knowledge of the hope of God's calling, and the 
infiniteness of our destiny in Him ; that God-con- 
sciousness which will make our blessed Master so 
intensely real to us that to us in the fullest sense 
every day and all the day to live will be Christ. 

III. 

TBF USE, 

From the consideration of the meaning and the 
purpose of the Quiet Hour, we now pass to a ques- 
tion which, because it is the most practical, is for 
most of us the most important. We ask : 



14 THE QUIET HOUR. 

What is the best manner in which to 
make use of the Quiet Hour ? 

This is a question which no man can answer for 
another. There must always be something individ- 
ual and special in the observance of the Qui^t 
Hour. Each one for himself must discover how he 
can most profitably occupy the time at his disposal. 
Still, I would venture to suggest a scheme which 
may be found useful by some, and which will at 
least have this advantage, that it will call attention 
to certain acts of the soul which should always 
have a place in our private devotion: 

DETACHMENT. 

1. The Quiet Hour should begin with an act of 
Detachment. Having, by taking forethought and 
trouble about it, secured a place where we shall be 
free from interruption, let us, by a deliberate act 
of the will, drive out of the mind all worldly 
thoughts, and bend mind, and heart, and conscience, 
and will to the work in hand. This act is necessary 
at the outset if we are to get the most out of the 



THE QUIET HOUR. 15 

time at our disposal. It is an act which many find 
difficult. *ome will say that they cannot banish 
worldly thoughts, that they cannot concentrate 
their attention. But though we find the work dif- 
ficult, we must not be discouraged. If the effort is 
honestly made and persisted in, in dependence upon 
the Spirit of God, our power over our thoughts will 
grow until we have them almost completely under 
control. 

Having by the act of detachment secured quiet- 
ness of soul, we should begin the direct devotion 
of the Quiet Hour by 

RECOLLECTION. 

2. An act of Recollection. In this act we deal, 
not with promises, but with facts. We do not 
pray or praise. We believe and we affirm. We 
recall the relation in which we stand to our God. 
We say : '^ At this moment, as I bow before God, 
I am a child of God, redeemed by the blood of 
Christ, quickened and indwelt by the Holy Ghost. 
At this moment I believe in Jesus Christ, I rest on 
Him, I love Him, I desire to please Him. And at 



16 THE QUIET HOUR. 

this moment God loves me ; the Lord is my 
Keeper ; the Holy Ghost is at work making me 
holy ; at this moment God's grace is sufficient for 
me ; all things are working for my good." Let me 
plead that the act of Recollection be never for- 
gotten. All the other exercises of the Quiet Hour 
will be greatly helped by it. 

But if rightly performed, the act of E,ecollection 
will naturally pass into 

ADORATION. 

3. An act of Adoration, Thanksgiving, and 
Praise. We cannot think of what our God is 
without adoring Him ; we cannot think of what 
He has done without offering Him thanksgiving 
and praise. I think that the act of praise should 
have an early place in devotion. Nothing prepares 
the way for prayer like it. The sense of God's 
greatness and power that is awakened within us as 
we adore, the sense of His goodness and love which 
fills our hearts as we praise, makes prayer as 
natural and as easy as breathing. 



THE QUIET HOUR. 17 

But with the vision of God there always comes 
the vision of self ; so the act of Adoration is fol- 
lowed by 

CONFESSION. 

4. An act of Confession. We pass inevitably 
from praising God for His goodness to ns to be- 
moaning ourselves for our waywardness - and cold- 
heartedness towards Him. When Isaiah saw the 
Lord high and lifted up, immediately he cried, 
" Woe is me ! " When the vision of God broke on 
Job, he abhorred himself and repented in dust and 
ashes. We have not rightly used the Quiet Hour 
if it has not brought us some measure of contri- 
tion. Let us seek from God always as we approach 
Him the grace of penitence, and real sorrow before 
Him because of our transgressions and our sins. 
And let our confession ever be honest and full. 
There is no progress in the spiritual life possible if 
we are not absolutely honest with God about our 
present condition. 

But if the act of Confession is not to depress 
and discourage us, it must be followed by 



18 TBE (^UIET HOUB. 

FAITH. 

6. An act of Faith. In this we accept anew 
the full and free forgiveness of our God. Having 
confessed our sins, we wait in silence before Him 
until by the Holy Ghost these words come with 
new power to us : '^ I have blotted out as a cloud 
thy transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins ; '' 
^' Go in peace ; ^' and there comes stealing over the 
soul a fresh sense of the infiniteness of the Divine 
grace and the perfection of the atonement made 
for our sins. The way is now open for 

BIBLE-STUDY. 

6. The Eeading and Study of the Word of 
God. It is surely needless to insist upon the abso- 
lute importance of giving to the Word of God a 
prominent, indeed, a preeminent place in the Quiet 
Hour. We might as well try to live our natural 
life without food as our spiritual life without the 
Word of God. If we are to be spiritually healthy 
and strong, we must let the Word of God dwell in 
us richly. And our study of it must have these 



THE QUIET HOUR. 19 

marks about it if it is to profit us : — (a) It must 
be direct. We must read and study the Bible itself, 
not merely books about the Bible, or even extracts 
from the Bible. Meditations on the Bible, such as 
those of Spurgeon and others, are invaluable ; ex- 
tracts from the Bible, such as those in " Daily 
Light," are simply priceless ; but they must never 
be allowed to take the place of the Bible as God 
gave it to us. (b) It must be systematic. Some 
definite line of study should be carefully chosen 
beforehand, and then regularly followed out, so 
that the effect of our study may be cumulative. 
Care should be taken not to attempt too much at 
one time. " Thorough '' must be our motto in the 
study of the Bible, (c) It must be in dejpendence 
on the Spirit of God. We must remember that 
He Who at first gave the Word must give the 
Word to us if it is to be spirit and life to our 
souls. 

On the reading of the Word of God there should 
follow 



20 THE QUIET HOUR. 

MEDITATION. 

7. Meditation. Some time, however small, 
should be given to this. Better read less of the 
Word than omit meditation on what has been read. 
In meditation we let the Word soak into the mind. 
It is through meditation that we make it really our 
own. In meditation we inwardly digest the Word, 
we seize on its truths, and take them to be our 
guide and our comfort for the day. 

Following the meditation there comes 

PRAYER. 

8. Prayer. As we set ourselves to pray there 
must be a remembrance of the conditions of pre- 
vailing prayer. They are such as these : (1) Heart- 
separation from sin. " If I regard iniquity in my 
heart the Lord will not hear me.'' (2) Righteous- 
ness. '^ The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous 
man availeth much.'' (3) Faith. '' He that cometh 
unto God must believe that He is, and that He is 
the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." 
(4) Submission. ^^If we ask anything according 



THE QUIET HOUB. 21 

to His will He heareth us." (6) Thankfulnes3. 
"In everything by prayer and supplication with 
thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto 
God.'^ In addition to these let us ever remember 
that prayer to prevail must be God-wrought. It 
must be " in the Holy Ghost/' and " in the Name 
of Jesus.'' 

I think that usually prayer should follow read- 
ing. We should hear God speak to us before 
we speak to God. And it will often be found 
helpful to base our prayers on the words that 
we have read. If in the passage sins are men- 
tioned which we have tolerated in our life, we 
pray that these may be removed. If in the pas- 
sage certain graces and virtues are inculcated, we 
pray that they may appear in our lives. The 
supreme advantage of this method of prayer is, 
that we then know that what we pray for is in 
the line of God's will, and thus have the infallible 
assurance that we shall be heard. 

After prayer will naturally come 



22 THE QUIET HOUB. 

INTERCESSIOK 

9. Intercession. This is the holiest, as it is 
the most diflftcult, exercise of the Quiet Hour. 
Intercession is the highest form of prayer, and the 
power to intercede effectively is something to be 
earnestly coveted and eagerly striven for. Inter- 
cession, like prayer, has its conditions. (1) It 
must be intelligent. We cannot rightly intercede 
for those of whom we know nothing. Intercession 
by proxy, as it has been called, is far too common. 
I question if it avails much. (2) It must be pur- 
poseful. A great theologian has laid it down as a su 
principle that we have no right to intercede for 
any one whom we are not personally prepared to 
serve should the occasion call for it. (3) It must 
be detailed. The best fruit is hand-gathered. But 
that means that it is taken one by one. (4.) It 
must be importunate, patient, and continued. True 
intercession is that which takes no refusal, 
but pleads with the Friend, and continues plead- 
ing, until He arises and gives what is needed. 

Intercession, like reading, is greatly helped by 



THE QUIET HOUR. 23 

forethought. The more we learn the art of Inter- 
cession, the wider will the sphere of our interces- 
sion become; and the wider the sphere becomes 
the more impossible it becomes to deal with it all 
at one time. The difficulty thus created will be 
met by arrangement beforehand. Some themes 
will be chosen for continual intercession, and will 
never be omitted. Others will be taken up at 
certain times and laid before God. I would plead 
earnestly for much intercession. I believe that 
what the Church needs to-day more than anything 
else is men and women who can take hold of God, 
and obtain the forthputting of His power for the 
blessing of this world. 

In Intercession the exercises of the Quiet Hour 
naturally reach their climax ; but ere we close and 
go forth to face the toil and rush of the day I 
think that there should be 

CONSECRATION. 

10. An act of Consecration and Committal. 
I, the child of God, have been in my Father's pres- 



24 THE QUIET HOUR. 

ence. He has been speaking to me, and I to Him. 
The fellowship has been direct, personal, and 
sweet, — a foretaste of heaven. And now I am 
going out into a world where He is hated, where 
His Name is profaned and His people despised. 
So ere I go I put myself once more under the shadow 
of His wings, and hear Him say : ^^ The Lord is 
thy Keeper, the Lord shall preserve thee from all 
evil, He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall 
preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from 
this time forth and forevermore.'^ And then with 
a smile on my face and a peace that passes under- 
standing in my heart, I go out to let my light 
shine before men, that they may see my good 
works, and glorify my Father Who is in heaven. 



JUL 11 1900 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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